Pa Joad

Pa is the leader of this family, but he sure is a quiet one. Having fathered six children and having lived in Sallisaw, Oklahoma for all of his life, farming the land, Pa Joad has his hands full. He isn't always the best at staying calm or at making decisions, but he does the best that he can. Marrying Ma Joad might have been the smartest move he's ever made. In the last blog I talked about how Ma slowly inherits the status of group leader from Pa because he struggles to make the difficult decisions. They are happily married though and never fight; except for on some occasions they disagree about what is best for the family and go to the edge of violence. We notice that Pa Joad gets quieter and quieter as the journey goes on. Here and there, we catch glimpses of how he might be changing. For example, when Ma Joad demands that the family not leave Tom behind with the broken touring car, she has to arm herself with a weapon. In the old days, Pa Joad would have beaten Ma Joad for talking back or for disagreeing with his decision(Steinbeck, Chapter 16). But times have changed, and Pa, who has lost almost everything, is more shocked by the change he sees in his wife than he is angered by it. In fact, as the novel unfolds, Pa grows more and more bewildered by just about everything he sees. He is not sure what is going on around him sometimes, which is the point when Ma steps in to make a decision for him so that the family can continue on their way. Pa does want the best for the family, but I think that he does not know what the best for the family is sometimes. He just needs some help sometimes. He also probably feels guilty about what has happened to them. He is the man of the house and was not able to keep a job and I bet this makes him feel really lousy about himself.

Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 1992. Print.